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“The only way for us to go forward is to all make clear that the era of threatening default is over”

Republicans have several, sometimes conflicting goals in the current government-shutdown impasse. Democrats, by contrast, have just one. It’s called “break the fever.”

Breaking the fever is code for ending the cycle of recurring, last-minute crises over spending bills and increases in the nation’s borrowing limit—the debt ceiling. The White House believes these crises give outsize power to a minority of conservative House Republicans who don’t have the strength to push their agenda into law but can, in a crisis, stop the action.

More important, Democrats are convinced they must break the cycle now, or see much of the Obama second-term agenda sink away.

“The only way for us to go forward is to all make clear that the era of threatening default is over,” Gene Sperling, head of the White House National Economic Council, said Monday at a breakfast organized by Politico.

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The White House believes these crises give outsize power to a minority of conservative House Republicans who don’t have the strength to push their agenda into law but can, in a crisis, stop the action.

You know how you could have fixed this problem you idiot Democrats?

You could have passed a budget.

You could have signed onto a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution that would have made government shutdowns a thing of the past.

“The only way for us to go forward is to all make clear that the era of threatening default is over,” Gene Sperling, head of the White House National Economic Council, said Monday at a breakfast organized by Politico.

Then get the dhimmicRAT controlled Senate to pass budgets on time.

“The only way for us to go forward is to all make clear that the era of threatening default is over,” Gene Sperling, head of the White House National Economic Council, said Monday at a breakfast organized by Politico.

‘Congress is trapped on the question of raising the national debt by one of its own legislative tricks — postponing disagreeable decisions until the last hours of rush to adjournment when there is no further time for deliberation and the situation is ripe for trading.’

President Eisenhower, 1953

In 1977, during the administration of Jimmy Carter when Democrats held both chambers of Congress, the AP wrote this:

‘With the Senate entangled in a filibuster over natural gas prices, Congress let the Friday midnight deadline slip by without passing final legislation to raise the debt ceiling.

‘Our intention is to continue…,’ said Sen. Howard Metzenhaum, D-Ohio, who is leading the filibuster with Sen. James Abourezk, D-S.D. ‘I guess we could continue the filibuster for another week, 10 days, maybe two weeks without much trouble.’

FTR: Congressional Democrats eventually relented, and a temporary debt limit increase was signed into law on October 4, three days after the statutory deadline.

‘If my Republican friends believe that increasing our debt by almost $800 billion today and more than $3 trillion over the last five years is the right thing to do, they should be upfront about it. They should explain why they think more debt is good for the economy.

How can the Republican majority in this Congress explain to their constituents that trillions of dollars in new debt is good for our economy? How can they explain that they think it’s fair to force our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren to finance this debt through higher taxes. That’s what it will have to be. Why is it right to increase our nation’s dependence on foreign creditors?

They should explain this. Maybe they can convince the public they’re right. I doubt it. Because most Americans know that increasing debt is the last thing we should be doing. After all, I repeat, the Baby Boomers are about to retire. Under the circumstances, any credible economist would tell you we should be reducing debt, not increasing it. Democrats won’t be making arguments to support this legislation, which will weaken our country. Weaken our country.’

After adding $8,476,453,325,616.38 to the national debt since he made that comment in 2006, what Harry Reid thinks the country needs to do is add trillions more – that’s trillion with a ‘T’ as Obama said.

BTW, Reid’s stated reason then was that the Boomers were about to start retiring so we needed to reduce the debt. Beginning on 01.01.10 (and lasting through 2020, at least), 10,000 Americans began to become eligible for Social Security and Medicare EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

“The only way for us to go forward is to all make clear that the era of threatening default is over,” Gene Sperling, head of the White House National Economic Council, said Monday at a breakfast organized by Politico.

I assume that they mean to do this by controlling spending. Right? Right?!?

After adding $8,476,453,325,616.38 to the national debt since he made that comment in 2006, what Harry Reid thinks the country needs to do is add trillions more – that’s trillion with a ‘T’ as Obama said.

Resist We Much on October 8, 2013 at 5:51 PM

The amount of debt is clearly irrelevant. All we need to do is remove the debt ceiling so the government can spend us to recovery. Because nobody who is in deep, deep debt has ever been turn down for credit nor had any difficulty paying his bills. That’s why the term “default” is an archaic term that has long been been absent from the English lexicon.

The only people I’ve heard threatening default of the ruling class establishment on both sides of the isle. In fact my understanding is that the law requires that the President service our debt before any other expenditures so there is absolutely no risk of default. By threatening default, and continuing to talk about it as a possibility when in fact it’s not, the ruling class is playing games to protect their power and control over us that has no bearing in reality.